Wondering how undersea cables in Asia recently interfered with AT&T’s network? Wired ran an excruciatingly detailed piece in 1996 by the hacker tourist that explains how the worldwide network of undersea cables—tubes, if you will—connects us to our friends halfway around the world. [Wired]

Carey, the previous Consumerist post you linked to is not correct, as noted by me and others in the comments. Statements from AT&T thus far regarding the cable breaks have referred only to Mideast outages. So while the linked article from Wired is interesting, it’s not a huge mystery why a cut cable in the Mediterranean would affect the network in Egypt.